December 23, 2007

Dear Friends,

Some ETSC students, 2007 - 2008.

It's amazing how time flies. This fall academic term has been a “flying time” for Sungmin and me. It seemed like one moment it was August and we were just returning from celebrating our wedding in Florida, and now it is the end of December and we are in Seoul, Korea, with Sungmin’s family, as I get to know her own context better. In between was an action-packed academic term at the Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo (ETSC) that kept me busy with lots of visitors, development projects, and future plans for the seminary, and it kept Sungmin busy with her studies in the M.A.T.S. program.

When we return to Cairo in early January, Sungmin will begin her preparations for her thesis in Middle East Christianity—a 60-70 page English-language research project on the reasons for the disappearance of Nubian Christianity hundreds of years ago. And I will be helping the Egyptian administration coordinate the most hectic January term in the history of ETSC, with about five separate academic programs running simultaneously, five visiting professors, and five groups of guests dropping in for a few days. Such is the life of this little seminary in the heart of Cairo!

Celebrating with friends from Egypt, Iraq, and Canada.

I am quite proud of this little seminary where I serve. In less than a decade, the seminary has grown from about 80 students being taught by a faculty of less than ten full-time faculty (only two of whom held Ph.Ds) to around 200 students and 15 full-time faculty, 5 of them with Ph.Ds and two more on the way! Numbers never tell the whole story, but it gives an indication of the situation in which Egyptian Christianity finds itself in this new millennium. Oppressed?  Perhaps. Struggling? Definitely, but at the same time, the ETSC is confronted by boundless opportunities for outreach and service. Again and again, the faculty and administration remark that it is not the opposition of the majority religion in Egypt that limits our activities, it is the resources (both human and financial) that we are able to secure and the extent of our own vision and energy to carry out these endeavors.  ETSC is a wonderful place to serve the Lord and study about Middle East Christianity in the midst of its context.

As we conclude 2007 and begin 2008, Sungmin and I reflect joyfully on all that God has been doing in our lives and the way the Lord is teaching and leading us in this first year of marriage. We are so blessed that we have been brought together in this place to encourage our brothers and sisters, and to help each other in the challenges we face in ministry. Cairo is by no means an easy place to live as newlywed foreigners, but again and again we find that we receive more than we give through God’s grace. Since our marriage, many married women in the seminary community began to reach out to Sungmin with offers of help in taking care of tasks like shopping for groceries, ironing, and getting around in general. As foreign women often face a high degree of harassment in Egyptian-dominated areas, these simple offers are quite generous!

We ask your prayers for the Christians of the Middle East as we enter a new year. One glance at the news tells us all that the challenges and problems are daunting in the whole region. But again and again we see how faith in Jesus Christ encourages and sustains our brothers and sisters in the Middle East, the literal birthplace of Christianity. The Church is alive in its birthplace, and experiencing the miraculous presence of God daily. Join us in praying for the safety of Christians here and their strength and encouragement in the uncertain times facing Egypt and all her neighbors.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year!

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 324

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Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
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